NYPD Car Chases Are Becoming More Frequent – and More Dangerous

On a rainy Saturday night in 2018, New York City Police Department officers Andrew Diaz and Oscar Lopez were sitting at an intersection in an unmarked car when a young couple on a motorcycle passed in front of them. The officers saw the bike run through a red light at high speed, they said, and chased the pair down side streets in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens.

Roughly 90 seconds into the pursuit, the officers heard a collision and saw sparks ahead of them. The bike had skidded down the slick street and crashed into the front of a bread delivery ...